Junkers Ju 89

The Junkers Ju 89 was a German four-engined heavy bomber designed for the Luftwaffe before the Second World War under the Ural bomber programme, in which General Walther Wever asked Junkers and Dornier for long-range designs. Junkers answered with the Ju 89 and Dornier with the Do 19, and the Air Ministry ordered prototypes of both in 1935. The first prototype, D-AFIT, was flown by Peter Hesselbach on 11 April 1937, but development was cancelled on 29 April 1937 because heavy bombers burned a great deal of fuel and the Luftwaffe leadership preferred larger numbers of medium bombers such as the Ju 88. Two prototypes were built, each powered by four Daimler-Benz DB 600A piston engines. In June 1938 the second prototype set a payload and altitude record, carrying 5,000 kg to 9,312 m. Both aircraft later served as heavy transports and seem to have been scrapped by the end of 1939, and the incomplete third airframe was rebuilt as the Ju 90 airliner.